Weekend planting

[DocHolladay]

I went to the lease Sunday as I had to work Saturday and attend our local DU banquet to pick up their firearms(we do the background checks for the winners). Two members were up there Saturday and did a bunch of work in one of the plots. We received permission from the lease company to clear some areas as long as there wasn't any short needle pines and money making trees in the mix. We hired a guy back in February, with equipment, to come in and grind all the trees down and it left a thick mat of debris that had to be removed. We didn't remove 100% of it, but we did remove the thick areas and drug a rake over it to thin it out. We then used a small atv disc to "fluff" it up before planting and then raised the disc and went over it again to cover the seeds. We used pelletized lime in all the plots back in march. We will apply fertilizer our next trip up because we didn't have enough time to get everything done and will apply more lime later in the summer or in the fall with our fall plantings.

We ended up planting 5 plots with various seeds. The bigger plots(1/2 & 3/4 acre) got a mix of hudson soybeans, iron/clay cowpeas, milo, millet, sunflowers and there was a little wheat mixed in. We did this in hopes of helping the turkeys too. One small plot had some throw and grow one of the members used back in November and we disced it under and planted a mix of soybeans and cowpeas. This will be the second year with that mix in it and hopefully the deer hold off like they did last year, until it gets taller. The two smallest plots received spring oats, as everything gets eaten pretty quick in them and we went with a cheap easy planting.

 

[DocHolladay]

Bad storms looming is what stopped us from filling feeders, but it did get all the plots wet. We will be heading back up Sunday to fill the feeders and check on germination. It rained Sunday afternoon and we have had sunshine so far this week, with more rain forecast for for the rest of the week. Hopefully we should have some germination in most/all of the plots. I look forward to seeing what has started growing.

 

[lakngolf]

Sounds like some ideal conditions to jumpstart your plots. Good luck

 

[DocHolladay]

The owner/my boss' daughter graduates this weekend and he is taking Monday off to start getting everything ready for a house full of graduates and parents this coming weekend. I am working Monday to cover for him so, I couldn't make it to the lease as, I had to mow and do my weekend chores Sunday. Two other members went up and filled all the feeders and pulled trail cam pics. It took a 55gal barrel full and 5- 50b bags of supplemental feed to get the job done. We have some very pregnant doe and bucks sprouting antlers. The turkeys found the food plots full of seeds and made good use of what didn't get turned under. We had some seeds starting to poke out of the ground. The soybeans were splitting open so that green could be seen. This week is supposed to be sunny and warm and hopefully the seeds will finish what they started. I received several videos and pics of deer and turkeys in the plots and also some videos of deer using our mineral sites. Everything is looking good so far. Next trip up, we will be putting out some exclusion cages to keep tabs on the plots...... if they don't get mowed down before then.